Voluntary board of trustees

Voluntary board of trustees

Board of trustees

The voluntary Board of Trustees advises the Steering Committee and the Board of Directors of the German Doctors in matters concerning public relations, fundraising, positioning and cooperative development aid. It supports the networks of the organization, like Friends of the German Doctors or partners from industry. It makes new contacts with individuals, companies, institutions, and networks which promote the German Doctors’ goals by conveying them to society or providing access to public or private funds.

Dr. Maria Furtwängler

Dr. Maria Furtwängler lives in Munich and has been President of the German Doctors’ Board of Trustees since 1998. She supports the organization, especially in cooperation with industry and the media.

Maria Furtwängler first became involved in the work done by the German Doctors in Nairobi. Since them she has visited projects in India several times and was most recently in the Philippines to accompany the development of projects there.

Prof. Dr. Peter Eigen

Prof. Dr. Peter Eigen was born in Augsburg in 1938 and was a member of the German Doctors’ Steering Committee from 2010 to 2016. Since 2016 he has had a new function on the Board of Trustees.

After passing the first and second state examinations, he got his doctorate in law in Frankfurt am Main. He worked for the World Bank, last as Director of the Regional Office for East Africa, from 1967 to 1991.

In addition, he founded Transparency International, the Berlin Civil Society Centre, and the Initiative for Transparency in the Raw-Materials Industry (EITI), of which he was chairman until 2011. Peter Eigen taught at the Frankfurt am Main University, Georgetown, Harvard, and is honorary professor at the Free University in Berlin.

Peter Eigen has three children and performed many missions for the German Doctors together with his now deceased wife, Dr. Jutta Eigen. He is an active member of Kofi Annan’s Africa Progress Panel, is chairman of the Advisory Committee of Transparency International and a member of the Advisory Committee of the Humboldt-Viadrina School of Governance in Berlin.

Dr. med. Udo E. Beckenbauer

Dr. Beckenbauer, born in Wickede an der Ruhr in 1953, has been actively involved on the German Doctors’ Committee since the 1980s. He qualified as a doctor of medicine in Freiburg and Aachen and has worked in numerous clinics and surgeries; he currently works in Munich. Apart from working for the German Doctors, Dr. Beckenbauer is also involved in Powerchild, various medical associations, the “Lichtblick Hasenbergl” foundation, and SIXT’s children’s aid foundation “Drying Little Tears”. Dr. Beckenbauer has been a member of the German Doctors’ Board of Trustees at the since 1990, where, apart from performing general functions, he is also responsible for recruiting and maintaining contact with sponsors. Dr. Beckenbauer’s attention was first drawn to the organisation by an article about its medical missions in Calcutta and on the Philippines (Mindanao and Manila) in the German Medical Gazette. The idea behind the German Doctors and his conviction of the vital importance of humanitarian aid have motivated his engagement.

German Doctors help worldwide

We believe in the right of every human being to get medical care no matter their origin. Therefore our volunteer German Doctors offer medical treatments in developing countries for the poorest of the poor. Whether people infected with HIV, undernourished children deficiency syndromes or people with chronic diseases, we help everyone who needs help.

Our doctors work during their annual leave or retirement for a period of six weeks and waive any compensation. More than 7000 missions with more than 3200 doctors were completed since 1983.